Who we are

Dr Kira Westaway

Quaternary geomorphologist and geochronologist at Macquarie University, who has over 13 years’ experience in establishing chronologies for cave sites in Southeast Asia, including Liang Bua in western Flores, Tam Pa Ling in northern Laos and Lida Ajer in Western Sumatra

Prof Russell Ciochon

Palaeoanthropologist in the Department of Anthropology at University of Iowa, USA with over 30 years’ experience, is the world leading expert on G.blacki and has been publishing on the topic for over 26 years.

Prof Yingqi Zhang

Palaeoanthropologist with 10 years’ experience, is a rising star in the IVPP and an expert on Giganto in the caves in the Chongzhuo region

Dr Renaud Joannes-Boyau

Geochronologist and Geochemist at Southern Cross University, specialising in the application of direct dating methods and micro-analytical techniques to key questions in archaeological sciences, such as the timing of human evolution, interaction with the surrounding environment and ecological niche, as well as hominids diet and early life history.

Juliën Lubeek

Juliën Lubeek is a PhD student in palaeontology at Macquarie University, with a broad background ranging from sedimentary geology and evolutionary biology to science-based archaeology. His PhD research is focussed on applied micro-techniques for reconstructing Giganto’s diet, environment and age to gain insight into the cause of its extinction.

Prof Simon Haberle

Leading expert in palaeoecology and palaeoclimatology of tropical regions including Australasia, Asia, South America, Pacific and Indian oceans. He has over 30 years of experience reconstructing past environmental conditions in tropical and sub-tropical environments across the globe and is currently researching monsoon changes in the Yunnan region of China, next to Guangxi ZAR.

Dr Wang Wei

Director of the Guangxi Museum in Nanning, is an active paleontologist and is an expert on the caves and terraces in the Bubing Basin. He has been working on reconstructing the palaeoenvironments and evolution of Giganto for over 20 years.